The big news is: four-player parties with just one cart, and that means a full board-and-all game, not just a daisy-chain of flowery minigames. That makes it the first Mario Party where everyone gets a screen to themselves, best demonstrated in the game where two teams of two are bashing their way through a blocky ice maze without the split-screen nonsense the N64/GC/Wii had to suffer. Neat.

The party bouncers will only let in people with a certain sense of stylus, of course. One game has you twirling your plastic finger to operate a music box that stems a forest onslaught of - yes - giant Goombas. But the thumb-flaying, button-battering, so-called "fun" hasn't been ditched. Those nightmares you've had about being trapped in a maze, forced to flee some kind of Mario-on-a-giant-shoe by whacking the A button? They're all about to come true.